it's gonna be alright
by flythroughflames
Summary: There were a lot of things Katniss Everdeen liked about her boyfriend. But there were some things she wasn't exactly a fan of.


There were a lot of things Katniss liked about her boyfriend.

She liked his curly blond hair, and how frustrated he would get in the mornings when he couldn't get it to lie flat before he had to dash out of the door for work. She liked his big arms and strong chest, arms that felt so good wrapped around her. She liked his cute glasses that he would wear even though he preferred his contacts, just because he knew she had a thing for them. She liked the giant smile that he gave out freely to his patients and strangers alike, and she especially loved the slightly crooked one she knew was just for her.

Peeta Mellark wasn't the type she normally went for. His bright blue eyes and all-around sunny demeanor were markedly different from the dark, broody types she had dated in the past. When her sister had gushed to her about the new doctor in the pediatric ward, Katniss couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"He's from Texas, but he doesn't have an accent, and he has the bluest eyes I've ever seen! And he has a really good build, you can totally tell he works out but not in a gross, roidy way, ya know? And he's so good with the kids. He's basically perfect," Prim had told her during their weekly dinner date.

"Aren't you engaged?" Katniss drawled, stealing the piece of gyoza before Prim could reach it.

"Yeah," Prim sighed wistfully, and for a moment Katniss thought she was seriously thinking of leaving her fiancé for the new doctor.

"I know!" Prim shrieked, causing Katniss to nearly stab herself in the throat with her chopsticks in surprise. "I'll introduce you to him when you come with me to the gala!"

Katniss scoffed before taking a pull of her Sapporo. Like hell was she going to enjoy spending time with this guy when she didn't want to even go to the stupid hospital fundraising gala in the first place, having been corralled by Prim as her plus one since Rory would be working late. "I don't think so," she said smoothly. "He doesn't seem like my type."

She was right. Peeta Mellark wasn't her type at all, but that didn't stop her from giggling at his stupid jokes (when she never, ever giggled), internally swooning when he told her about why he wanted to be a pediatrician (when she never liked kids), falling into a cab with him, and waking up with him in her bed.

He was a heavy sleeper, and she liked how his golden skin and blond hair looked against her deep green sheets, so she didn't wake him. Peeta woke up half past noon and straggled from her bedroom into the living room, where Katniss had been eating mac and cheese and watching Netflix. She liked how cute and frazzled he looked when he woke up so much that she invited him to have dinner with her (another thing she never did), and their one night together turned into another. And another. And another.

Yes, there were a lot of things Katniss liked about Peeta, she thought to herself from her place within the exclusive box towering high above the massive football stadium, Peeta's face pressed up against the streakless glass as he excitedly looked down onto the field below.

But his taste in music and football teams were not one of them.

After they had been dating for a few months, in early January, a little girl was rushed into the emergency room with a badly broken wrist. Her mother, a serious, older woman had been beside herself during the ordeal, but Peeta fixed the child up with minimal tears, his calm and friendly demeanor soothing the child as he set her wrist. A few days later, he received a letter from a Ms. A. B. Paylor, the mother of the little girl whose wrist he mended, as well as the interim commissioner of the NFL (the previous commissioner, Coriolanus Snow, had recently been removed from his post following some unsavory allegations) thanking him profusely for fixing her daughter up, and giving him two box tickets to the Super Bowl in gratitude.

Peeta had been floored by her generosity, and surprised Katniss with his extra ticket, which she thanked him enthusiastically for later that evening. Her team, the team she had been raised on by her cantankerous uncle, her deceased father's favorite team, the Cleveland Browns, had all been guaranteed a spot in the Super Bowl, and she couldn't wait for the day to get there.

Peeta had been very noncommittal during the rest of the playoffs, on account of not being the biggest football fan, but when it was announced that the Dallas Cowboys had secured the NFC championship and would be playing the Browns in the final game, everything had changed.

"They're my hometown team!" he said to her as they got ready for bed the night of the NFC championship. He settled into his side of the bed, having spent most of his nights at her place rather than his once they became a couple, as she brushed her teeth in the adjoining bathroom, "I have to support them."

"You don't even care about football," she grumbled, turning away from him as she flopped onto her side.

His powers of persuasion (and certain parts of his body) made it difficult for her to stay angry with him for long. But everything changed when the halftime show performer had been announced.

Taylor. Swift.

Peeta had been over the moon. Katniss wanted to vomit. She never could stand country music, especially Taylor Swift and her saccharine, annoying voice, and her stupid ramen noodle hair, and her immature lyrics. Why couldn't have the NFL just picked another dad rock band past their prime? This would almost be as bad as Beyoncé.

"This'll almost be as good as Beyoncé," Peeta whispered to himself when the announcement played on TV as they ate their breakfast. His secret Taylor Swift love had burst through the confines of his heart and wallet once the announcement, and Katniss took every opportunity to tease him for it.

"Taylor's a great songwriter, okay?!" he ranted to her one night after Katniss had made another offhand comment about the singer-songwriter. "Yeah, a lot of her old stuff is really immature, but she's grown! She doesn't have ramen noodle hair anymore. She's an adult. And she plays her own instrument, and she sounds good live, and the _Red_ tour was probably one of the best I've ever seen."

Katniss opened her mouth to make fun of him for having seen her live before, but he wouldn't let her. "Just give her a chance okay? I promise you'll find something you like about her."

And Katniss did. So _Red_ was a pretty good album. And she might've cried in her car as she listened to _All Too Well,_ because it reminded her how she felt after her first major break up. And she could have possibly listened to Taylor's other four albums on Spotify, including her new pop one, before purchasing them all. And it was probable that _Enchanted_ maybe perhaps reminded Katniss of how she felt when she first met Peeta.

But she didn't like Taylor Swift. Not at all.

And she didn't like her traitorous boyfriend, decked out from head to toe in Cowboys regalia, when he knew how much the Browns meant to her.

But she did like how how happy and excited, like a little kid, he was when Taylor took the stage and how he took her hand and pulled her up to dance with him when _Shake It Off _began to play.

There were some things about Peeta Mellark she didn't like. But at the moment, the pros outweighed the cons.

* * *

_I wrote this insane little story as a little present for my friend c-r-roberts. I know it's crazy. Hope you enjoyed!_


End file.
